


Great the Roman

by Teddydora



Category: Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard - Rick Riordan, Percy Jackson and the Olympians & Related Fandoms - All Media Types, The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Angst, Blood, Camp Jupiter, Gen, Identity Issues, kid magnus chase, roman!magnus chase, sad shit, this is... very angsty
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-26
Updated: 2021-03-03
Packaged: 2021-03-12 01:08:50
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,325
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29002005
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Teddydora/pseuds/Teddydora
Summary: His mom was taking an awfully long time. And those howls sounded closer. And more animalistic.It was so quick that he nearly missed it but there was a scream, high pitched and feminine. Oh no.When Magnus Chase ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time while camping with his mom in 2002, he accidentally gets recruited as a "roman" demigod by Lupa.
Relationships: Annabeth Chase & Magnus Chase, Jason Grace & Magnus Chase, Magnus Chase & Lupa (Percy Jackson), Magnus Chase & Natalie Chase, Magnus Chase & Octavian (Percy Jackson), Magnus Chase & Reyna Avila Ramirez-Arellano
Comments: 26
Kudos: 28





	1. mom, am i still young?

**Author's Note:**

> TW FOR GORE AND BLOOD

The firelight was beginning to die the last time Magnus saw his mom. She was sitting opposite him, roasting a marshmallow on a stick at their camp for the night, on one of their usual hiking trips to the Blue Hills. 

“I think we need more wood,” said Magnus. Natalie looked at the former pile of firewood, seeing that it was reduced to a single log and nodded.

“Stay here, I’ll go and get us some.” And then she was gone. 

Magnus waited, he knew it was hard to find good burning wood on the ground - pine wood was too sticky and smoky to be used if preferable, and they had passed a couple of oak trees on their way up, which was where Magnus could see his mom’s torchlight headed towards. In the distance, the wind howled. It almost sounded like a wolf. 

He knew it was unlikely it to be that, it really was but he went into his mom’s bag and pulled out her hunting knife for peace of mind. Just in case. It was getting pretty chilly though, even with the fire. He hugged his ski jacket around him and grabbed his hat and scarf. No one was there to see him look stupid in them anyway. 

His mom  _ was _ taking an awfully long time. And those howls sounded closer. And more animalistic. 

It was so quick that he nearly missed it but there was a scream, high pitched and feminine. Oh  _ no _ . 

Magnus didn’t think for even one second. He just ran. The woods were dark and more than once did he run into a tree trunk or stumble over a root. It didn’t matter, he needed to find his mom. 

The howls were getting louder, but there was another noise, like tearing flesh. It reminded Magnus of a nature documentary he watched when he was younger where a deer was torn apart by a coyote. His heart wrenched in his throat and his stomach turned itself inside out. 

Somehow seeing them was worse than his own, eight year old, imagination. His mom’s torch was still on, thrown to the side but these wolves would’ve been visible in the night anyway, with their glowing blue eyes and Magnus could see them standing over a woman. Eating her. His mom. Eating his mom. 

He grabbed behind them, anxious not to be seen, as the biggest one snapped its mouth onto her throat with a sickening squelch and her dark blood poured out, painting the wolf a purplish red.

THWACK! 

The wolves all looked up at the sound, and then at Magnus, who was cursing his luck at stepping on a twig. They held his gaze for a moment before he jumped up, hoping to catch a branch from above. Somehow he did, and with a burst of energy, managed to haul himself up onto it and climbed his way further up the tree and out of reach. 

It was like a movie with them circling him from below, hoping he’d fall soon. Except in movies, the kid doesn’t start screaming and sobbing when he realises his mom is dead and is half frozen on a tree branch, thirty feet above the ground. 

He didn’t know how much time had passed. He didn’t know if he slept at all or if he was hallucinating or if he was completely awake and lucid. His hands were glued to the trunk, his legs straddled on the branch. He couldn’t afford to fall. 

The sky was beginning to get lighter though, turning a dark purple from its former deep blue and the stars were fading back to invisibility. Magnus had thrown up three times and the ground below him was spinning and his forehead felt like it was on fire, the one time he touched it. 

Eventually the wolves started to go back to their meal when someone showed up. Something showed up. 

Magnus had never seen anything so big. He must’ve definitely been hallucinating at this point because a nine foot tall wolf plunged through the trees and frightened the others away. 

She ignored his mom though, instead coming to the bottom of the tree. “Magnus Frederick Chase. Come down here or I will wait until you pass out and fall and I will then eat you.” Eat him? Okay definitely hallucinating. What was the thing his mom had told him about? Shock? Was he in shock? Did that even make you hallucinate? Whatever, animals don’t talk and don’t know people’s full names and they aren’t nine feet tall. Maybe this was a park ranger that his head had decided to mess with. 

He unlatched his hands, the joints almost frozen during the night, and swung himself down.  _ This isn’t real, this isn’t real. _

When he hit the ground, he forgot to bend his knees and a flash of pain rushed up from his ankles. The wolf was there, now surrounded by what must’ve been her pack of ten wolves, mostly young ones. 

“Thank you for complying, Magnus. For that, I will not eat you.” She grinned, with coppery coloured teeth and bits of meat stuck between them. 

“Thank you?” Magnus patted his pockets. Amazingly, the knife was still there. He pulled it out, holding it away from him, stupidly, at the giant wolf. “What’s going on?” She (she?) chuckled. 

“All in good time, young demigod. Just wait and I will explain what you need to know. We should first deal with the matter of your mother.” She turned her head towards where his mom - what was left of his mom - lay, being nosed by the other wolves. 

It wasn’t as bad as he thought it would be. Most of her was still there save... a leg, her face, her stomach and other internal organs. She was completely unrecognisable and looking at her in the near dawn light made his whole body seize and clench and Magnus could taste bile coming up from the back of his throat. 

That was his mom.  _ That _ , that thing lying in front of him, yesterday was a laughing living woman. She was smiling, when she left him. She had no idea. Magnus felt a tear bubble up from his eye but refused to let it go. He couldn’t show weakness here. Not with the wolves. 

Slowly he realised that the wolves were bringing him wood. For a fire? Magnus looked at the big wolf, “Sorry, do you have a name?”

“I am Lupa, Trainer of Demigods, Wolf Goddess. Among other things.”

“Goddess?” Had he eaten something weird? 

She stared at Magnus for a minute, “Yes, young one, a goddess. Of Rome. All the old gods are alive and around in the modern era. Jupiter, Juno, Apollo, Neptune, Diana. Are these names familiar to you?”

“No.”

“You’re the child of a god, I can smell that on you, you’re a demigod because your mother was a mortal. The gods themselves can be discussed later but for right now you will need to survive. Both my trials and the monsters if you want to make it to Camp Jupiter and New Rome.”

“What’re they?”

“Camp Jupiter is the training camp for descendants of the gods. New Rome is their city. It is a haven for demigods. Monsters cannot touch you there.”

“Monsters?” Were those the wolves from last night?

“Yes. Those are what killed your mother. They hunt demigods to kill and eat. It is not a pleasant fate, although it is the one most common to demigods.”  _ Yay.  _ He’s going to die in incredible pain. Wonderful.

“My mom never said my dad was a god though.”

Lupa’s eyes up close were almost dead inside. Like she was trying to tell him,  _ You think you’re bad? Try me _ . Magnus did not want to try her _. _ “She may not have known. Believe me, the Roman gods are real and so are their monsters. Now, we must build the pyre soon if we hope not to be caught.”

“Pyre?” 

“To burn your mother and rest her soul. It is up to you to build the fire though.”

Magnus got down on his knees. His mom had taught him how to build a fire but this was more than a campfire to huddle around and cook dinner, he supposed, this was his goodbye to his mom. He wanted her to hold him and hug him and tell him it was a horrible dream. He even pinched himself to try and wake up but with no avail. This was it. 

Soon the fire was built. Thankfully, Lupa didn’t expect him to carry his own mother’s corpse to it and her wolves dragged it over. 

“Check your pocket,” said Lupa. Magnus did and found a silver coin there. “Open her mouth and put it in there.” 

He tried not to look too much at it. He didn’t want these memories of his mom to be the ones solidified in his mind forever. Preserved and immortal. He wanted her from any other day. With their trips and impromptu take out dinners because she burned the real food, or her stories and laughs and hugs. He opened her cracked jaw, with bitten away lips and broken teeth, and slipped the coin inside. 

Why did it have to be her? Why her and not him? He should’ve volunteered to get the wood! It was his fault. He could’ve prevented this. 

He would make it better. He could make it better. 

Magnus shook himself. He could deal with that and mourn later. Now? He had a funeral to lead. 

He tried not to let his voice crack, “Mom, I’m sorry. it’s my fault you’re dead. It’s all my fault and I’m sorry. I’ll do my best to fix things. I can go to camp. I hope that’ll make you proud, mom.” He dropped a lit match onto the dried leaves that made up the kindling and it all went up in flames. 

Magnus collapsed on the ground, eyes trained on the shape that was slowly being eaten away by the fire. He heard Lupa say some words but didn’t make them out. 

Weirdly, the air didn’t smell like burning flesh. It smelled like his mom’s shampoo and smoke and dirt, just like she did.

The sunlight came in full force, like a fiery charge of light. In a way, it might’ve made a good painting. The boy at his mother’s pyre with the wolves watching him for a single mistake. 

He knew he couldn’t trust the wolves and Lupa. He didn’t know if eating him was an empty threat or not, but he wasn’t about to risk it. Those wolves might come back though. And other stuff. Magnus didn’t know a lot of roman mythology but his cousin had been really into Greek mythology before she ran away and from what he remembered, they were pretty similar and he would not like to meet those monsters. Maybe Camp Jupiter was nice. It was safe at least. That was better than here. 

When it was done, and all that was left of Natalie Chase was a pile of ash and charcoal, the wolves went running. Magnus, wanting as far away from the area as possible, followed them, his lungs screaming in the first five minutes from asthma and lack of exercise. 

He didn’t stop though, just kept looking at the sun and staying in the trees. For some reason. For some reason, when he did that, it made things so much easier. 

They ran for so long though, out of the Blue Hills, headed west, through fields and forests and streets and roads, unseen by any people. They must’ve been going for an hour when Magnus noticed that they’d passed the state line into New York. 

It felt like time and space was like bending around them. Maybe Lupa’s magic stuff had something to do with it. 

The next time he looked around, they were in Denver. Colorado. At 6am that morning he was in Massachusetts. At 2pm EST he was in Denver? It didn’t make sense. Nothing made sense. They got water at a stream. Magnus guessed he couldn’t exactly get a bottle from a shop and just shoved his face in the water. 

And then they were off again. 

When they finally stopped, they were in a place called the Jack London State Park, California, from a sign he saw at the entrance, before diving through the bushes to keep up. It would’ve been 5pm EST but Magnus needed to adjust his watch now that he was on the whole other side of the country.

When he got up, his leg just crumpled beneath him, too tired from running. His lungs weren’t any good either. Every breath he took felt like he had the entire wolfpack sitting on his chest. The younger ones gathered around him, locking him in. They were nice and warm but Magnus refused to let his guard down. 

Three hours later, he let his eyes close, surrounded by a pack of sleeping wolves. 

  
  



	2. dreams of an unreachable past

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW BLOOD

Magnus didn’t know where he was. It was like he was in this grey fog area and there was something further outside it, surrounding him and the fog was some kind of protection.

He pushed past it, curious and found himself at the campfire, facing himself. It was the fire from last night, everything was the same. Maybe it had been a dream and he could warn his past self about what was about to happen. 

But when he opened his mouth, nothing came out. Then he, the other him, said, “Mom, I think we need more wood,” and immediately on queue, the real Magnus nodded and said,    
  


“Stay here, I’ll go and get us some.” But the voice that came out his mouth wasn’t his own. It was someone else’s. More feminine. Older. 

It was his mom’s voice. He was his mom. 

And he was going to die. 

Fear locked itself onto his chest but he couldn’t do anything, just continuing to walk along the dark forest path to his own doom. 

Now that he was in his mom’s body, he noticed he was a lot taller than he - the real Magnus - was, by well over a foot. 

The trees were less tall, their shadows less scary. Magnus tried not to shiver. Not that he could anyway. He could hear the wolves in the distance, there was no mistaking that noise, those awful howls, for wind now. He knew better. Knew better too late. 

Eventually he got to the spot beside the oak trees. It was a lot less scary than he thought it would be. Maybe he could be with his mom, once it was over. 

Maybe it’d be cool right? The afterlife might be fun and he could play with all those dogs that his classmates had told him about that got ‘sent to a farm’. 

The breeze blew softly on his face, like someone saying a mournful goodbye. 

The teeth bit into the back of his neck and he screamed. It wasn’t going to be okay, it was so bad, it hurt. It hurt, so, so much, the pain blazing its way all around his body. And they were everywhere, their glowing eyes almost scaring him to death, probably would've if he wasn’t going to die first. 

His eyes shut, everything going black.

And they opened again. 

Magnus didn’t know where he was. He was completely surrounded by a pack of sleeping wolves, a pack of wolves. He nearly let himself shriek and scream but his mom had always taught him not to disturb wild animals whenever possible. 

So instead he looked around, trying to figure out where he was, where they had brought him. And it all came flooding back, memories slamming into him like a tsunami. 

His heart ached and he longed to throw it out, cast away into some far off ocean to never be seen again, like some gothic hero, skulking around the yorkshire moors. But he was no heathcliff and the weather was all wrong for it anyway. The sun was shining. Birds were singing. 

It was wrong, all wrong. His mom was dead! Natalie Chase was dead! How _ dare _ the world be bright and summery and cheerful when she was gone forever. 

Snot trickled out his nose, matching the tears pouring out his eyes, unnoticed by him. He took one shuddering breath. Then another. And another. And slowly but surely, 

they got quieter. Calmer. 

Half blinded, he stumbled through the trees until he reached a puddle in the middle of a muddy track. The water wasn’t cool nor was it refreshing, it was gross and muddy and probably had diseases or something in it, but he planked his head right into it anyway, reveling in the feeling. He needed this. 

It worked… ish. He didn’t feel so out of control but his heart was still racing and he was praying that all of it was a dream and he could wake up in a minute, about to be late for school, run to the car with his mom with her still in her pajamas because she slept in too and continue his mundane, normal life. 

He pinched himself but it did nothing. He was still there. 

His stomach rumbled, starling him. He needed food. The wolves hadn’t eaten him yet, maybe they had some. It wasn’t like he could get any anywhere else, he couldn’t see any edible plants and there wasn’t a phone to order pizza on or money to pay. 

He was trapped between a rock and a deadly animal. His stomach clenched again. 

Deadly animal it was. 

He found his way back eventually, having nearly smashed himself face first into not one, not two, but three different trees. If there was an olympic contest of face-tree-smashing he would win it hands down. Face down?

The wolves were all up and… lounging about? Lupa was there at the centre with some puppies that Magnus recognised as the ones that slept around him the previous night. She was licking them over with a tongue as long as Magnus’ arm. It reminded him of the stray cats that lived in the alley next to his school and how they’d take care of their kittens and clean themselves.

“You’ve returned.”

Magnus bit his lip. Her voice was domineering and scary as it had been yesterday and he didn’t want her to kill him. He had to make things right before he died and he hadn’t even gotten started on that. “Yes. I am.” 

Was he meant to offer an apology for leaving? He didn’t think he actually had any obligation to stay but maybe she did. And the nine foot tall wolf with huge teeth and probably a bigger appetite absolutely made the rules here. 

“We will begin your training today, in hunting.” At that word, all the wolves’ ears perked up in excitement. They must’ve been hungry too. 

“Cool. So… uh… how do we go about doing that?”

“Follow me, Magnus, you, you and… you.” She pointed at another three of the wolves with her nose. “The rest of you can find food by yourselves today.” 

Magnus walked through the grass as quietly as he could. The other wolves were doing far better than he was at stalking this deer but he was trying his best, keeping his head down low. 

It was strange. Out here, it was like there was some energy, some primal power radiating from his fingertips. He put his hands on the ground to avoid being seen and he could feel something radiating through the earth. He pushed through it, aiming for the deer. 

Long swathes of grass and ivy and plants started growing around it, twisting through its legs and over it’s back and onto its head too - too quickly for it to escape. 

“Was that you?” Asked Lupa.

Magnus half-nodded, “I… I think so.”

“Go and collect your prize.”  _ His prize? _

The poor thing was still struggling under the foliage. He felt sick. It hadn’t done anything to him. But he was hungry and how was this anything different from buying meat at the store? At least here it was happy for a time instead of locked in a box or whatever else his mom had told him happened to abused farm animals. 

_ But what would be less painful?  _ The energy was still in him, he could feel it ready to make the kill and suffocate the deer. But he also had his knife, heavy in his pocket. If he made a quick slice in the right area - like how his mom’s ex boyfriend, Jeff - had taught him to do, he could end it a lot quicker than suffocation. 

He cleared the area around the deer’s throat.  _ Quick and easy, quick and easy. Just the right artery and he could eat soon _ .  _ He couldn’t show any weakness to the wolves or they’d both be dead. _

He cleared the area around the deer’s throat, not it’s head. It made a noise of panic, trying to move but trapped and stuck. 

He got it right on the first try. The artery burst with a flush of blood that covered Magnus’ hands and the sleeves of his jacket. It smelled a lot worse than the butcher. 

But it wasn’t dead. Maybe he could speed it up? He did it again, closer to the head. More blood. Not as much, the flow was less violent but smelled equally awful. 

His stomach hurt again but this time it wasn’t hunger but trying to keep down whatever was in there. He forced his mouth shut and continued on what he needed to do. 

Magnus didn’t notice when the deer actually died, he only realised when the wolves joned him and started tearing into it. He picked all of them off it. If he was going to survive here he needed to show that he was above them. This was his kill. It was his food. 

“Creative use of your powers,” said Lupa, her mouth curled into a sneer. “I’m interested in seeing the rest of your potential. Just don’t be so… _ indecisive _ in the future.”

Magnus nodded his head as he gathered the body in his arms, trying to ignore what it resembles, especially with the bite marks, ready to carry back to the camp. 

He couldn’t wait to be away from here. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> whoohoo updated quicker than i thought i would! wonders can happen when you have homework for tomorrow and you haven't even started it, right? Tell me what you thought! 
> 
> I've also got a rrverse instagram now! It's @mallory.keen.is.wlw if you guys wanna check it out :)


	3. journey to a new home

The last few weeks had been hell. After managing to drag the dead deer to camp and skinning it, giving up on cooking it, tearing it apart and eating it raw with wolves, he passed out again. For three whole days. 

According to Lupa he had pushed himself too far with his powers and doing that too often or too much at once could kill him. Then she spent the next few weeks banning him from doing anything that big again, instead making him take down animals by hand or making the grass grow a bit. She had compared it to running a bit everyday to get better at doing big runs. “Endurance takes time, but it is worth the effort” she had said. 

Magnus just wished he could pass out for another three days straight. He really could do with it. These pre dawn starts and post dusk ends were beginning to wear him out. He had never regretted not having a bedtime before but it was worse that he had to stay up so long all the time. 

He had noticed some improvement, he could do the same amount of growing that he had done when he killed that first deer but he wasn’t getting so tired any more. That was pretty cool. 

Lupa had also taught him to tan the hides of animals. The first one was already finished and made a good mat to sleep on instead of the hard ground, no matter how good it might be for his back. 

Dealing with the animals was gross though. Too much blood, it was too slippery and slimy and the less said about the smell the better - it only got worse the longer the poor thing was still around. 

Magnus would be lying if he had said he hadn’t vomited a couple of times while killing them or treating the corpses. He picked himself up each time though, refusing to be held down. “ _ No weakness _ ” haunted his thoughts persistently and he needed to make it through. 

Even if that meant hauling himself off the ground mid hurl and never ridding himself of the rancid taste.

He was sitting at the edge of the camp, playing with his knife when Lupa came before him.

“Magnus Chase, you have completed my trials and survived initiation for the last seven weeks. Your reward is admittance to Camp Jupiter,” she paused, lower lip curling in a snarl, “ _ If _ you can remain alive for the journey. It will be perilous and dangerous but Camp Jupiter is safe and you will thrive there. Leave tomorrow at dawn and take your things with you. Head south to Berkeley. You will find it from there.”

Magnus seriously wanted to question how he could possibly find it from  _ that _ . Was it signposted or something? He doubted it. Then it hit him.  _ He had made it _ .  _ He was going to camp. He was worthy - he could make his mom proud. He could make it up to her. _

“Thank you for training me.” He tried for a smile but she still scared him to death and it ended as a wonky grimace. She nodded once and was gone. 

Magnus was allowed to go to bed early that night and when he woke up, he took one last look at the still sleeping pack and left before Lupa changed her mind and decided he would make a tasty snack. 

The woods weren’t as creepy in the dark as they used to be. Magnus stretched out with the weird energy stuff and could “see” stuff. It wasn’t like he got a proper picture of it, it was more like he got an idea of where things were, like owls chattering in trees and crickets singing in the undergrowth. 

The main reason he used it was so he didn’t fall and trip on any uneven ground which was embarrassing even if he was off by himself and safe from having to not show weakness or cowardice. 

Dawn rose while he walked through the woods, trying to find the exit. There were a few trail paths in the area but he couldn’t read the signs and didn’t want to risk heading in the completely wrong direction so he tried his best to calculate his direction squinting at the sun. 

_ The sun comes from the east so one side to the sun is north and the other is south, right? _ He really hoped that was right because otherwise he was going to have issues getting to camp. Albeit, it would be pretty funny for a god to see him end up in like Alaska instead of “south of here”, California. 

Eventually he made it through and wandered out to a town, at the time when he usually would have breakfast. He cheered internally at the thought of food that wasn’t foraged or hunted before realising he had no money. 

Even seven year olds know that you need to pay for food. 

Unless he stole it. 

And if he got caught… well, prison had food, right? Garbage food. But still. 

The town was small, really just a bunch of houses and stores but Magnus could smell the grease and fat burning away from _ somewhere _ and he wanted to find it. His nasal senses didn’t stretch as far as a wolf’s did though so after going a few blocks he walked into a pizza shop. 

Full of cyclopes. 

_ Time to put that training to the test _ , he thought, but before he could do anything he had been picked up and carried into a back room by one with terrible BO. 

The back of the pizza shop was far worse than the front. At first appearance it was this usual fast food mom and pop place but back there was damp and humid and  _ reeked _ . Magnus didn’t even want to guess what was making that smell. He already kind of knew. 

“We haven’t had a little demigod in a while, have we, Rob?” The one who had carried him in here clearly didn’t think he was much of a threat since his arms were still unbound and he had his knife. 

_ Which was made of steel, dammit! _

He was dumped unceremoniously onto the floor and rolled over on instinct, standing up again, hands forced back to his sides. He was locked in a room with three hungry cyclopes and no way to kill them and/or get away. 

Rob looked disappointed, “Yeah, but this one is  _ really  _ little. There’s barely anything of him!” He swung his arm out, an overgrown gangrenous fingernail slicing into Magnus’ cheek. Now he really had to get away before it got infected! Dying from a tiny wound was definitely worse than being eaten, although neither were ideal. For sure, not ideal at all. 

He tried to think his way through it. No weapons, no plants and he was probably too weak to kill them with his hands. What did he have left? 

Words. 

“I might not be much but at least you’ll not get my friends!” The cyclopes turned to him, Rob, NotRob and GirlRob. He tried to keep his cool. “They won’t look for me either, they think I’m stupid so it sucks to be you guys I guess.”

GirlRob looked at him sucking on a clump of matted hair, “You could bring them to us. We would  _ totally  _ spare you, right guys?”

They grunted in agreement, “More people, more food,” muttered Rob. “Want food. Pizza not as tasty as demigods.” 

“Yeah! I mean I could do that! They’re  _ horrible  _ to me,” he tried to grab some perhaps nonexistent sympathy from them, “But if you… I don’t know… no, it’s stupid…”

“What, what is it?” Rob was practically slathering at the thought of more food. Magnus narrowed his eyes. This was the killer statement.

“We need new weapons so if you had any swords or… whatever… and I took one with me and told them I found more they’d follow me. Like lambs to the slaughter.” He’d done it. He could see it in their eyes. NotRob nodded.

“We accept your terms. Viv, give the boy one of the nice ones.  _ We can always get it back after _ .” He whispered the last part but a little too loudly. It was fine, Magnus was planning on killing them anyway. 

GirlRob- Viv lumbered out and returned a second later with a shiny gold sword. 

Nice. He could work with a sword. She handed him the sword and then pushed him out the door into the front of the shop.

“Pleasure doing business with you.” He managed to get out before Viv slammed the door into his face

Magnus estimated he had a half hour period before they came out and found him. He could always run but Lupa had said that monsters were very good at tracking demigods, especially ones that they had met already. In addition, they were positioned at an exit of Lupa’s training area, assuming she used the same space which meant if he didn’t get rid of the cyclopes then someone else could die because of him. No one else would die because of him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so this one isn't nearly as graphic as the others. it shouldn't be like them from here on out for the most part. 
> 
> we're nearly at CJ. and with CJ we get our favourite characters! poor magnus though, it's a good thing he can think on his feet. 
> 
> tell me what you thought! I love getting feedback


	4. cyclops killer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw for violence

After ten minutes, he snuck back into the back of the building. To his disgust, there were bones back here. Human bones. Skulls, spines and one creatively shattered femur. Being with Lupa and the wolves desensitised him to an extent, before he would’ve already thrown up and run as far as his legs could’ve carried him but now he just clenched his jaw, careful not to make even a squeak. 

A pit was building in his stomach and all he wanted to do was run as he tried his best to find his way to the counter where he guessed they hadn’t moved from. He had thought the wolves had been the scariest thing ever but this was terrifying. 

_ Please say it’s a bad dream. Please. I just want to wake up and cry. I want my mom. I want my mom, please. _

In some desperate hope, he pinched himself until spots of blood started appearing. Like every time he had done that before, he didn’t wake up in his old apartment, safe with his mom. He was in the backroom of a cyclops pizza store and had to kill them. 

Something moved in front of him. It was Viv by the looks of things. She was getting something out of the storage cupboard. Magnus was still hidden in the shadows but the second she turned her back, he dashed right up to her, half scared to death because if this went wrong, he was toast. Or dinner, rather. 

_ Swish _ . Viv leaning down to pick up the thing she was getting was his saving grace. He managed to get her in the neck before she dissolved into golden dust. The thing she was picking up, dropped to the ground with a horrible clatter that Magnus knew had just alerted the other two.

He had  _ not _ come here to kill one and leave the other two to get him. No way. 

“Viv, you alright?” Yelled Rob, “Hurry up and get the spit over here so we can eat the kids properly, not like common monsters!”

Magnus tried his best to go with a Viv voice but he failed himself at the last minute, “I’m all good, can you come in here to help me?”

“Nice impersonation of the kid. You too lazy to get it yourself?.” Rob audibly huffed from several rooms over, “Fine but  _ I’m _ getting the best cuts, okay?”

“Fine! Just get over here!”

Magnus clambered to the top of the shelves, trying to get a good enough vantage point to get rid of Rob when the monster himself stomped in. 

He looked around the cupboard, all confused but didn’t see Magnus above him, sword held so tightly in his hands that he couldn’t even feel the tips of his fingers. He just had to turn around. And not see the dust. 

_ Please don’t see the dust. _

He turned around, head poking out the door when Magnus took his chance. 

“Viv! Where-” Another explosion of dust. Some of it got on Magnus and he squirmed at the feeling. It was like wet sand but also felt like the time he went hiking with his mom and got his boots lost in the bog so she carried him home with the grainy mud drying on his feet. Something fell to the floor and bounced like a tennis ball. His spoil from that.

An eye. It hit his foot and he picked it up, staring at the remains of Rob the Cyclops. It didn’t really look like a human eye. More like a bull. The dead emptiness of it made Magnus cringe and he dropped it into a box of wood shavings, burying it so he wouldn’t have to see it at all. 

_ One more to go and you’ve lived. Until the next fight, of course.  _

_ One battle at a time. _

NotRob was probably in the kitchen if Viv was getting ready to do some cooking. He felt a bit better now he’d gotten rid of two out of the three but this was no time to relax. If he could kill Viv and Rob, he could totally get NotRob as well. Well, probably.

He found the kitchen pretty easily, the smell of garlic and rosemary drawing him in. If the cyclopes hadn’t been… monsters and murderers, they would’ve made a killing probably on Hell’s Kitchen. 

NotRob was facing the cooker, not noticing the door open. Magnus just had to make it across the room but the door creaked and the 6’6 hungry maneater saw him. 

“You’re just in time for dinner.” Magnus couldn’t make it out of the way in time and NotRob picked him up and threw him in a pot with potatoes, cornflower and bones, like the ones beside the back entrance. “I take it your friends are with the others?” He nodded, all relief being replaced by panic and horror. 

NotRob dropped a sprig of parsley in beside him, “Now Rob and Viv are fine with stockcube nonsense but I believe the only good stock comes from boiling down bones and leftovers. Tastes better, you know?”

“... Yes?”

“The others just wanted to bake the lot of you dry but I said, ‘No, no, when do we get a pickings like this. Make it good. Make it last.’ It’s going to be delicious, I can’t wait.”

He hummed a song as he added to the pot, filled it with water and put it on the gas. Magnus’ bottom lip was bleeding and he felt clammy and out of control when it happened. There was a patch of mould on the ceiling and when he reached out with everything he had, it started to spread and grow. 

He made it form a tail and, without NotRick seeing, too bent over the onions to see, had it reach over to him like a lasso and before he even realised what was happening, it was around his neck in an unbreakable hold. 

Choking someone took far longer to kill than stabbing them did, noted Magnus. NotRob was panicking, hands clutching at his neck and making an awful gurgling noise that he could barely hear from the gas cooker below him and sloshing water from him moving around. His eye bulged out of its socket and was turning bloodshot before him before the final monster dissolved, leaving his kitchen knife as a prize. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay, ik it's been a while but i hoped you all enjoyed that please tell me what you thought, comments make my day.

**Author's Note:**

> i wrote this instead of doing schoolwork or updating my other WIPs so I hope you enjoyed it. Tell me what you thought - feedback makes my day. I've got a good plan for this fic and I'm really excited for it even if updates might be a bit slowcoming due to school and exams. 
> 
> Magnus is really not having a good time now. ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯. This is going to be fun!


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